The Wicked Witch Of The West, Melinda Haag How Evil Is She?

[Danielshemp]

http://blog.sfgate.com/smellthetruth/2013/09/03/medical-marijuana-crackdown-will-continue-in-northern-california-despite-new-federal-legalization-policy/

 

 

State-legal medical marijuana businesses in California can expect continued federal threats, raids, and forfeitures despite the historic new memo from the White House August 29 which resets Justice Department priorities with regard to marijuana.

On Thursday U.S. Deputy Attorney General James Cole released a memo which states that the Administration will allow marijuana regulation plans to move forward in Washington and Colorado. The memo also instructs federal prosecutors to de-prioritize enforcement actions against medical marijuana businesses in states where the drug is legal, so long as the businesses are following state law.

On Friday, U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag’s office told me, reporting for the East Bay Express, that the situation in the Bay Area will largely remain the same. Ms. Haag has worked to dismantle state-legal pot-growing regulations in Mendocino County and Oakland, as has sought to shut down the best and most compliant medical marijuana operations in the region, including Harborside Health Center in Oakland and Berkeley Patients Group in Berkeley, CA.

Lili Arauzhaase, speaking for the US Attorneys Office in the Northern District told us:

“At this time the US Attorney is not releasing any public statements. The office is evaluating the new guidelines and for the most part it appears that the cases that have been brought in this district are already in compliance with the guidelines. Therefore, we do not expect a significant change.”

Arauzhaase referred further questions Department of Justice’s Office of Public Affairs in Washington DC.

Kris Hermes, spokesperson for advocacy group Americans for Safe Access called the Haag office’s statement: “unsettling.”

There’s huge disconnect between national Justice Department policy and local U.S. Attorney practices, Hermes said. For example, Attorney General Eric Holder has told Congress that federal prosecutors were only going after medical marijuana operators who were also breaking state law.

“Of the hundreds of dispensaries that the Justice Dept. has shut down by way of threats to their landlords, in almost all of those cases, there was no violation of state law,” he said.

The cities of Berkeley and Oakland are suing to stop Ms. Haag from closing their permitted dispensaries. More than 50 California jurisdictions have regulated medical pot distribution.

“In San Francisco, if you look at the number of facilities that have been forced to close over the last year, none of them fit the criteria of the guidelines that have just been issued by the Justice Department. None of them,” Hermes said.

“I think we’re being sold a bill of goods and Haag is turning around and doing whatever she wants. The free rein the Justice Dept. has given its U.S. Attorneys has to be pulled in and Haag has to be forced to answer for her actions,” Hermes said.